SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: China isn’t weaponising minerals. China is simply playing the long game

https://x.com/BarrettYouTube/status/2019013722543419616

Barrett

Now suddenly China is “weaponising” rare earths… just because the US finally realised it outsourced its entire industrial backbone and can’t flip a switch to get it back. China didn’t wake up one morning and stumble into dominance over critical minerals. This took decadesof planning, brutal investment, environmental sacrifice, supply-chain integration, and industrial discipline. Mining, refining, processing, magnet production, downstream manufacturing — the whole stack. Not slogans. Not press conferences. Real work. And now Howard Lutnick stands in Washington talking about setting prices, setting tariffs, and creating industrial policy— the very things the US has spent 30 years telling the world are “market distortions.” Funny how “free markets” disappear the moment China wins at them. You don’t replace rare-earth independence overnight. You don’t mine, refine, train engineers, build infrastructure, and absorb environmental costs in one election cycle. China understands this. The US clearly doesn’t — which is why it keeps reaching for tariffs instead of shovels. And the accusation of “dumping”? Classic deflection. China built scale. China built efficiency. China built the full ecosystem. The West chose short-term profits, hollowed-out industry, and Wall Street over factories. That wasn’t China’s decision — it was America’s. Blaming China for America “sleeping” is peak irony. While the US argued about politics, China built coal plants to guarantee energy security, invested relentlessly in EVs, batteries, and materials, and locked down supply chains the future depends on. Strategy beats speeches every time. Now the US wants allies to “break chokepoints.” Translation: follow us into higher costs, weaker supply chains, and permanent dependence on subsidies. China isn’t weaponising minerals. China is simply playing the long game — the one the US abandoned decades ago.

10:42 PM · Feb 4, 2026